Web Miscellany: Compilation #56

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you’re doing okay amid everything. Over the last few weeks, my health have regressed ever so slightly. However, I’ve been feverishly sewing up baby things for an expectant friend, it’s no longer 120 degrees out, and my boyfriend has rescued several houseplants from the grocery clearance rack on my behalf, so life isn’t all that bad. Here are a few fun and interesting things from around the web –

This article has been sitting my drafts folder for well over a year and I still feel it’s worth sharing. Alaska’s health clinics were founded to help indigenous people, but the FDA and Big Pharma unwittingly enabled a opioid crisis instead.
I Am “Why Do I Need Venmo?” Years Old …and I am “turning into my mother” years old, too.
Did you know that Medieval nuns used to get high on saffron, to help them get through their prayer marathons? Check out these 25 Fun Facts About Food from Gastropod.
While on the topic of “getting high,” have you heard of salvia divinorum? Similar to psilocybin and MDMA, it’s a psychedelic undergoing research at Johns Hopkins University as an alternative to opioids for pain relief and a treatment for opioid abuse since it appears to act on the same receptor
The 2020 Fall Foliage Prediction Map. As always, the cool weather can’t arrive soon enough.
I’m nerding out over the Noxgear Tracer360 safety visibility vest. One of the intersections I cross on my nightly walk is notorious for its frequency of pedestrian accidents, with a few deaths each year. This light-up vest is horrendous, but every car comes to a stop early and allows me to cross without question. Pedestrian power!
On the “gentrification font” (Neutraface and similar typefaces). “Sleek sans serif numbers are now the official look of neighborhood change.” Maricopa county has seen explosive growth over the past few years and I’ve noticed this typeface everywhere.
Having a bad day? Check out this hilarious wildlife photos.
Amanda Mull explains why everything is sold out.
A good reminder to drop our “productivity” mindset and remember everything doesn’t have to be about results: “One way to think about play is an action you do that brings you a significant amount of joy without offering a specific result.” That means taking a bike ride because it’s fun, not because you’re trying to lose five pounds. “A lot of us do everything hoping for a result. It’s always, ‘What am I getting out of this?’ Play has no result.”
“Simplicity is the end result of long, hard work; not the starting point.” — Frederick Maitland
With the rampant wildfires sweeping the west coast, I’ve been thinking of this song quite a lot this summer.